United States Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz admitted during a Friday town hall on CNN the question of how the strikes in Iran benefited Americans was a “tough question.”
President Donald Trump announced U.S. and Israeli forces launched strikes Feb. 28 against Iran after negotiations over the weaponization of the Islamic regime’s nuclear program failed to make meaningful progress. During the Friday town hall, one attendee asked Waltz why Americans’ tax dollars were being spent on the far-away conflict and what benefit it provided to taxpayers at home.
“I’m a waiter at a local restaurant in Queens, a full-time college student who sleeps an average of four hours a night and is still thousands in debt,” Santiago Porras Ruiz addressed Waltz. “How is a war in a country half the world away funded by the taxes, pulled from my check, helping me in any way?”
“Yeah it’s a valid, and it’s a tough question,” Waltz began to respond.
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“I know for certain, and if we just look at the things the president has put in place in terms of housing and big corporations that are buying up whole neighborhoods, the tax cuts that he extended with the Big, Beautiful Bill, the energy policies that we’re putting in place to not only make us self-sufficient, but to, you know, lessen these dependencies and lower prices, even lowering prescription drug prices: the president’s absolutely focused on what you’re seeing day in and day out that’s affecting your pocketbook,” he continued.
Tankers stopped transiting the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway separating the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, after Iran began launching missile and drone attacks in response to the U.S. and Israeli strikes. Oil prices have climbed since Operation Epic Fury began, with WTI Futures Crude Oil closing at $98.32 Friday, up over $30 from the market’s Feb. 27 close, the day before the strikes, according to Investing.com.
“At the same time, as commander in chief, he has to weigh the risks and make the tough decisions facing some hard truths,” Waltz said. “We cannot have a world with a genocidal terroristic regime that holds not only your generation, but the next generation hostage with nuclear weapons. And, you know, those are the tough calls that the American people elected him to make. And I can tell you, having worked very closely with him, he doesn’t back off his red lines, and he doesn’t enter us into bad deals.”
“But those are tough decisions, no doubt. And I know they’re top of mind for the entire administration,” Waltz concluded.
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